It had been 14 years but this past weekend the members of the 134 Armor Centurions of the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division gathered in Junction City for a reunion.
This unit saw heavy action in the Sunni Triangle in Iraq putting down a rebel insurgency in the 2004 – 2004 time frame. They spent time in Ramadi, Falujah and Tikrit with their tanks spread between two bases.
A coordinator of the reunion. John Abel, Junction City, said at the time in 2003-2004, they were a test program for the Army. “So we did tanks and Humvees, we had to do ground work, infantry work. We did house to house searches. We also rolled in whenever we got heavy fire with our tanks. “During the deployment the unit lost 22 Soldiers, and multiple Soldiers were wounded. Abel would earn two Purple Hearts in Iraq, and he earned two more while serving in Afghanistan.
Abel explained the reunion idea began with a documentary series some were involved with called “Struggle Beyond a Decade.” ” A bunch of us got together and were trying to think of a new way to help stop veteran suicide. Just with that we’ve been able to help a lot of our own, and that’s really what keyed us up to get the reunion and get more sources of communication to everybody. ”
The members of the unit talked with JCPost.com at the American Legion in Junction City. One of those was tank company commander Aaron Martinez. He remembered the deployment as an intense time. “I was a young man, lot of responsibility, not just for your equipment and the combat lead but also your personnel. You’re taking care of a lot of other young men that have families that depend on you to make good decisions.”
At the reunion Martinez noted it was neat to see the combination of the unit’s different companies getting together. “And finding like minded things and problems that they went through in facing those different traumas of war.”
Those attending the reunion were welcomed by Junction City Commissioner Phyllis Fitzgerald, a former 1st Infantry Division Soldier. “Their service is in our history books forever. Their standards and all that they set, many Soldiers after them will continue to follow that.”
As for the 134 Armor Centurions they are now planning to have a reunion every year, and in the future invite other units from their task force that deployed to Iraq. John Abel will tell their story on the JC Now program on 1420 KJCK AM Wednesday morning at 7:48.